Greek BMW and Daimler subsidiaries accused of felony tax evasion

[Giannis]

According to the greek newspaper Agora and a variety of trusted greek online media, the greek subsidiaries of BMW and Daimler are accused of felony tax evasion after using invoices that were forged or had undercut prices to import cars for sale in the greek market.

A fine of 66 millions for Daimler Greece and 36 for BMW Greece were imposed today as criminal prosecution of those legally responsible is pending. Between 2011 and 2013 these two subsidiaries evaded 32.6 million euros in taxes according to the prosecutors.

Finally, this is part of a greater investigation considering over 200 million in tax evasion by car importing subsidiaries that started when a Daimler AG official admitted before a Columbia, USA court that his company was bribing government officials in over 22 countries, including Greece, in order for Daimler AG to get relevant contracts.

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Source (in greek): http://www.koutipandoras.gr/article...-prostima-se-bmw-kai-mercedes-gia-forodiafygh

Source (in greek): http://news247.gr/eidiseis/koinonia...-lathremporio-kai-varia-prostima.4122911.html

 

[Kowalski]

Taxation is theft, so well done BMW and Daimler.

 

[Sunny]

Taxation is theft, so well done BMW and Daimler.

Hope you are living off the grid, away from any civilized society. Oh wait, no, you are using THE Internet as in the one developed by govts and paid for by taxes... to rant against taxes. Talk about cognitive dissonance. Or is it just wilful hypocrisy?

 

[Mr Robert]

Isn't Greece's tax system rather heavy on everything but 1.2 Clios?

 

[Giannis]

Isn't Greece's tax system rather heavy on everything but 1.2 Clios?

Cars registered after 2011 are road taxed based on their CO2 emissions, while before 2011 road tax is a function of displacement. Anything over 1921 cc has a road tax >650€, when a 1400 cc Clio pays just 220€.

Then, there's luxury tax, inference tax, etc.

 

[Mr Robert]

Cars registered after 2011 are road taxed based on their CO2 emissions, while before 2011 road tax is a function of displacement. Anything over 1921 cc has a road tax >650€, when a 1400 cc Clio pays just 220€.

Then, there's luxury tax, inference tax, etc.

I have special thougts of regimes that put "luxury taxes" in effect.

A lot of European countries with no car industry often tax cars rather harsh.

 

[Giannis]

A lot of European countries with no car industry often tax cars rather harsh.

And they very well do, if you ask me. I consider myself both a petrol head and a heavily taxed citizen, but when it comes to principals, taxes are good for the community and for the country as well.

You can't rely on importing everything and selling only tourism to survive. You need a basic level of production. A way to achieve that is to tax goods that are imported, yet can be produced locally.

FYI, there used to be a couple of Nissan assembly lines in Greece up until a couple of decades ago and throughout all these years there have been talks with various car makers that wish to build factories here (no factory built yet). There are also a few coachbuilders and replica car makers (*) that sell their cars all around Europe except Greece, where they manufacture them, for legal reasons! Finally, there was NAMCO (National Motor Company) which manufactured the 'famous' Pony, based on the Citroen 2CV, which had sold in hundreds of thousands in the Balkan countries, the southern Mediteranian and the Middle East. My father used to have a Pony when he was a university student, which still lives today somewhere!

(*) Replicar Hellas is a company worth checking out: http://www.replicarhellas.com/

 

[MikeJ]

Giannis, I don't know how the Greek system works, but here in Finland car taxation has been the inspiration for many automotive monstrosities. The main reason is that commercial vehicles have always had a considerably lower tax rate than passenger cars.

This 'beauty' is a 1980s Pontiac Firebird pickup truck. Yes, really. There was a shop that would convert brand new Firebirds and Camaros into pickups in the US before shipping them to Finland. However, meeting the Finnish requirement for pickup bed length meant that they needed to add an extension behind the rear axle, meaning that the rear overhang was... well, generous. The picture above is actually quite flattering. Here's the Camaro version:

Another interesting variety was the so-called ski-box station wagon. In order to qualify for the lower tax rate, there was a requirement for cargo space volume and height that any vehicle registered as a cargo van needed to meet. A typical station-wagon-with-the-rear-seats-removed type affair, that you could see in most European countries, had no chance here. But that didn't stop some people; they cut the roof open and added a glassfibre bulge high enough to meet the demands. Typical victims of this treatment were the Merc S124 and Audi 100 Avant, but one importer even saw a business opportunity and included this in their official lineup:

These days the system is luckily a bit more lenient and the taxation less harsh.